This is excerpted from The Friend of London:

Talking About God with Karen Armstrong

‘”We are talking far too much about God these days, and what we say is often facile.” Karen Armstrong has never been one to dodge calling a spade a spade, and last week at Friends House London, without a note, she gave a dazzling, scholarly and inspiring address on what is wrong with lots of God-talk today . . . .

‘About 500 Friends and members of the public flocked into the main hall. . . . Her theological range is huge, she has something to say, and she says it. . . .

‘It is not that she rejects all the criticisms of religion made by Dawkins, Hitchens, et al. Indeed her book makes clear that some of their criticisms are valid. The problem in her view is that their analysis is not only intemperately expressed, but disappointingly shallow. . . .

“Besides, there is another context – a growing appreciation of the value of unknowing. That is what she wanted to share last week. Her talk was a veritable Cook’s tour of insights from the world’s great religions stressing the importance of recognising the limits of our knowledge and the value of silence, reticence and awe. . . .

“To anyone tempted to think that surely everyone knows what God is . . . Karen Armstrong has a firm answer: God is not a being at all, and we really haven’t a clue what we really mean when we say that God is “good,” “wise,” or “intelligent.”

‘Taming and domesticating God’s otherness it not helpful. . . . Earlier ages had a far better grasp of symbolism, allegory and myth.

‘In the Middle Ages, the word “belief” did not mean intellectual assent to a particular proposition. It came from the Middle English bileven, which meant “to love, to prize, to hold dear.”

‘She emphasised religion as a practical, not a theoretical, discipline. Something that teaches us to discover new capacities of mind and heart. . . .Like any skill, it requires perseverance, hard work and discipline.’

–Rosemary Hartill The Friend June 18, 2010.

An audio of Armstrong’s talk is here.

I’m with Armstrong. I think we non-non-theists too often try to make god as familiar and cozy as my calico cat sleeping right next to my elbow, flicking her fluffy multi-colored tail and knocking old papers off the top of the desk. . . .